You're listening to a podcast on Catholic Saints.

This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute, an apostolate helping Catholics understand, live, and share their faith.

I'm Tim Gray, president of the Augustine Institute, and with me is Dr. Ben Acres, who is a professor of theology of the Augustine Institute.

We want to do a little Bible study today talking about who Mark is, the author of the Gospel of Mark, and a little bit about the Gospel of Mark. I love St. Mark. I have a special

devotion to Mark. I love the Gospel of Mark. I did my doctorate dissertation on a section of Mark's

gospel.

So Mark is something that's, he's a writer who's very special to me. And having worked

within the Gospel of Mark quite a bit, I was intrigued by who the person of Mark was and as the

author and his story and his gospel. And so, you know, one of the things about Mark's gospel is you'll see that there's a symbol

for all four gospels.

When the deacon or the priest leads in procession before the gospel reading and holds up

the gospel book in the mass, there's oftentimes four images on that big red book.

And that's classic. There's these four images that go back to the early church.

You find St. Jerome, for example, who talks about this image.

And it goes back to an image that goes back to the book of Revelation, as well as all the

way back to the prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament.

And he sees these angelic beings who has four different faces. And these four faces of these

great angelic beings become associated with the four gospels. So you probably know that the eagle,

for example, is associated with the gospel of John, because

he soars with contemplation like an eagle, and he has this incredible vision.

And then you have Matthew, which is a man, and then you have Luke, which is an ox.

And people are like, well, why is Luke an ox?

...